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Ireland's political and cultural magazine
— June - July 2010
Obituary
Obituary: Danny Pender
Servant of the City
michael smith
a community worker in
the great tradition of tough, warm, unimpressed
Inner City Dubliners. He was born in and
grew up in Fatima Mansions in the sixties. He
loved Fatima, learning how to swim in the canal
where the Luas line is, and eventually turning out
for St Patrick’s Athletic Juniors soccer team. He
left school at thirteen and then studied maths
at the Tech in Inchicore. He married young to
Jacqueline and was a devoted father to Daniel
and Lisa, and grandfather to Jordan. He worked
intermittently including for IBM and in Clerys
but for the last nineteen years he had been on
disability benefit. He suffered a heart attack in
and in his last years he battled cheerfully
through an imposing breathing aid, countering
Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD)
and bouts of pneumonia.
Danny Pender first got involved with youth
when he started occasionally to help out the
Majorettes girls’ marching band, in the markets
area – between Smithfield and Capel St, twenty
years ago. Shortly afterwards, he was asked
by Shane Crossan and Sr Kathleen Kennedy to
help set up a club for the young people in the
area. From then on, of all the diverse community
activities in which he was involved, Danny’s pri-
mary determination was that local kids would
not be disadvantaged by a lack of services or
facilities. Danny never sold out, never compro-
mised his community or its kids (the baulder and
tougher they were – the more he liked them),
never took any payment for his work, never
sought political office or paid employment. But
he knew everyone.
Danny served on a number of committees in
the markets area, particularly for the Markets
Area Community Resource Organisation
(MACRO), and he rep-
resented MACRO on the
HARP (Historic Area
Rejuvenation Project)
Committee and the
Community Development
Programme (CDP). But his
main vehicle was Bradóg
(formerly Markets Area
Youth Service).
Danny had to learn
skills and knowledge
quickly in order not to be
talked down to or bam-
boozled by experts. He became something of an
expert on urban planning matters. He learned
how to follow orders of business and how to read
reports; and he learned how to cause chaos at
meetings. He caused havoc at many a meeting
of the HARP Committee, never letting the end-
less layers of bureaucrats get in the way of the
fix, often battling on noisily with some reluc-
tant official from the Housing Department or
whoever, even after the more sedate members of
the committee had passed on to the next agenda
item (though he never lost the twinkle in his eye).
He did whatever worked the best.
At his funeral, Shane Crossan told the tale
of two new youthworkers starting work in the
Bradóg project in . Shane wore a suit and
had prepared an induction plan for them. Soon
he heard an awful noise coming down the hall
and Danny burst in with a clatter of placards, all
shapes and sizes. Shane was given stiff orders
to give all staff a placard and head down to the
protest. What Protest? …but Danny was already
out the door. So fifteen minutes later Shane
was walking in a protest circle, blocking traf-
fic on Mary’s Lane in his suit, with the two new
youthworkers - kids, parents and grandparents,
cheerfully chanting “what do we want? A foot-
ball pitch: when do we want it? Now”. Shane’s
effort to look every bit the professional manager
was floating down the Liffey, but the two youth-
workers had got the best possible induction to
the markets area. But it is worth noting that the
protest was sparked off by a local child being
injured by traffic outside the flats. Danny saw
an opportunity to highlight the lack of adequate
recreational activities for kids. And partly as a
result of Danny’s protest, an area at the back of
the Fish Markets was resurfaced for young peo-
ple to play football for the summer months. It
was imperfect: Danny and MACRO had wanted
a dedicated leisure centre on that sight but pre-
varication by the Corpo and the recession did for
it. But it was a practical solution. He dedicated
his adult life to such solutions.
Danny Pender was an ordinary man. He
lived in an ordinary flat. He had an ordinary
family and ordinary neighbours. He held down
ordinary jobs and had ordinary pastimes and
ordinary hobbies. He loved family, sport, com-
munity and a little flutter once in a while. But
Danny Pender’s was an ‘extraordinary’ ordinary
life. Danny did all the things that ordinary peo-
ple can do:
Reaching out to others, standing up for
neighbours and the less fortunate in the com-
munity, challenging the rich and powerful to take
note. To Listen? To see?
These are not rare gifts or skills. It was
Danny’s use of them that was extraordinary.
The day he was laid to rest, the Church on
Halston St overflowed with grateful locals pay-
ing their respects.
“he never compromised his
community or its kids (the
baulder and tougher they were
– the more he liked them)”
